Statement of Faith
The Wallaces Statement of Faith
We are independent, fundamental, separated, Baptists.
Independent – We believe churches should be independent as were the churches of the New Testament. We do not believe churches should be under the authority of any man-made external organization be it a Convention, Association, Fellowship, Board, etc. The church should have only one head, and that being the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, a church’s only headquarters should be in heaven.
Fundamental – We affirm the doctrines frequently identified as the “Fundamentals of the Faith,” which include the deity, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and imminent return of Jesus Christ.
Separated – We believe Christians should bring forth the fruits of salvation in their lives, and that their relationships with Christ should affect every aspect of their lives: the clothes they wear, the language they use, the activities they participate in, the places they frequent, and even the jobs they hold. Christians should seek to separate themselves from evil of every sort.
Baptist – We are not Baptist-briders but we feel very strongly about our true Christian ancestry and Baptist heritage. Christ only built one kind of church and that church is described in detail in the New Testament. These churches have existed in every age since their founding by Christ, though they have not always been known by the name Baptist.
WE BELIEVE:
HOLY SCRIPTURES – We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (Apocrypha not included) from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, to be the verbally and plenary inspired Word of God, rendering them inerrant and infallible. The Bible, therefore, is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice, above the opinions and traditions of man. We believe in the doctrine of preservation of God’s “words,” therefore we hold to the King James Bible (Authorized Version) for the English language. We believe that the word of God is eternally existent, though given to men at a point in time. The word of God has and always will exist incorruptible. We believe that the understanding of the scripture comes to the Christian from the help of the Holy Spirit.
HOLY TRINITY – We believe in one triune God, existing co-equally as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, and is the creator and sustainer of all things.
LORD JESUS CHRIST – We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal, only begotten Son of God, is fully God, the second person of the Trinity, and not a lesser Deity. Without any change in His divine Person, He became man conceived by Holy Spirit in the miracle of the virgin birth. As man, He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. As the perfect Lamb of God, He gave Himself in death upon the cross as a vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice, bearing the sin of the world and suffering its full penalty of divine wrath in our stead. We believe that He was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. His resurrected and glorified body was a physical one of flesh and bone. As our great High Priest, He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God as our Advocate and Intercessor. We believe His return is imminent and premillennial.
HOLY SPIRIT – We believe that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, is the divine agent in Creation, Revelation, Inspiration, and Illumination. Since He is not impersonal, He can be grieved, vexed, tested, resisted, insulted, lied to, and quenched. In His relation to the unbelieving world, He restrains evil until God’s purpose be fulfilled. His relation to the unbeliever is conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. To all who become the sons of God by believing on Christ, He witnesses, regenerates, baptizes, indwells, seals, fills, empowers, sanctifies, anoints, teaches, guides, calls to service, and makes intercession. The baptism into the family of God at salvation, makes the believer a priest. It is a privilege and duty of all the saved to be filled with the Spirit. We believe that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, (i.e., speaking in tongues, gift of healing, etc.) were temporary. We believe speaking in tongues was never common or a necessary sign of baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit. The ultimate deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the resurrection, though God frequently chooses to answer the prayers of believers for physical healing. Evidence of being filled with the Spirit is the fruits mentioned in Galatians 5:22, 23.
SATAN – We believe in the personality of Satan, who was Lucifer, originally created as a holy angel. Through pride he rebelled against God thus becoming the unholy god of this world. He is the author of sin and is the Deceiver, the cause of the fall of man. He is the leader of all unholy angels, as well as the powers of darkness. He is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire. His powers are supernaturally great but strictly limited by the permissive will of God. He was defeated and judged at the cross, and therefore his final doom is certain. Christians are to resist and overcome him only in the armor of God and by the blood of the Lamb.
ANGELS AND DEVILS – We believe in the existence of holy angels and we also believe in the existence of fallen angels called devils. Devils are an innumerable host of angels that fell by reason of their rebellion against God and were cast out of Heaven with Lucifer. For Satan and his host, there is eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. The holy angels on the other hand, are ministering spirits, sent to minister to those who are heirs of salvation as well as minister around the throne of God.
CREATION AND FALL OF MAN – We believe that God created the universe in six literal, 24-hour periods. We reject evolution and other false, unscriptural theories of origin. Man is not a product of evolution, but was created in innocence in the image of God, having three parts (body, soul and spirit). All things were created by Christ and by Him all things consist. By voluntary transgression through disobedience to the revealed command and will of God, Adam fell from his sinless state. Therefore, all mankind are sinners, not only by constraint, but of choice, therefore under just condemnation without defense or excuse. Mankind now born in sin, has no ability to save themselves nor to remedy their lost condition and is therefore alienated from God, and therefore is spiritually dead. Every believer possesses two natures (the old and new man), therefore all claims to the eradication of the old nature are heretical as we will never lose the sin nature until we go to be with Christ.
FAITH AND SALVATION – We believe that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. We believe that Christ was buried and rose from the grave the third day according to the Scriptures. We believe Christ’s precious, sinless blood shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of sins washes away the sins of a repentant sinner seeking salvation due to godly sorrow, and by which he is forgiven, cleansed, purchased, justified, redeemed, and sanctified. We believe that salvation is the free gift of God brought to man by grace, received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and merited neither in part nor the whole by any virtue or work of man. Salvation, also known as being born-again, births believers into the family of God through adoption. Salvation is understood through the word of God. All that men know about salvation comes from one source, the Bible. The Word of God is itself alive and able to impart life to those who hear and believe the preaching of the gospel. God gave man a free will to accept or reject the salvation He has provided. Salvation brings instant justification and complete deliverance from the penalty of sin forever. We believe that Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us and that true believers never perish because they are kept by the power of God, sealed until the day of redemption and delivered from condemnation.
ETERNAL STATE – We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment & damnation. We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection when the spirit, soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord. We believe that the souls of the unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment in hell-fire until the second resurrection, when the soul and body are reunited and appear at the Great White Throne Judgment and shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment and torment.
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST – We believe in that “Blessed Hope,” the personal, imminent return of Christ who will rapture His church prior to the seven-year tribulation period and that the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. At the end of the tribulation, Christ will personally and visibly return with His saints to establish His earthly messianic kingdom which was promised to the nation of Israel and the unsaved dead will be cast in the Lake of Fire after the Great White Throne Judgment.
SEPARATION– We believe that all born-again Christians should live in such manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord. We believe Godly living is the fruit of being born-again. We are taught by the grace of God to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. We are not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind. The Bible teaches us to be separate from unbelievers and worldliness, which includes pagan and heathen, immodest, and sensual appearances, immorality, and all sinful and evil pleasures. We are to separate from all religious apostasy, heresy, false teachers and all other movements not in agreement with the Word of God. God commands us to expose all such along with those organizations espousing to them. A true Christian can expect to be hated by the world and persecuted by them when separating from them. True separation from the world is also separation unto God. This is exemplified by a love for and a desire to know more about the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Separation is a fear of God, obedience to the Word of God and an earnest expectation for the second coming of Jesus Christ to deliver them from this present evil world.
LOCAL CHURCH – The church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is a congregation of immersed believers, associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His teachings, and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word. Each local church is to be independent, autonomous and free from political authority or ecclesiastical hierarchy, with the Lord Jesus being the only Head. We believe all ministries should go through the local church and under its authority. Para-church organizations are unbiblical because they can usurp the local church. We reject the universal church teaching of Catholicism and the false teaching of salvation exclusively through a church by some protestant groups. We believe God has always had a faithful testimony of sound bible-believing local New Testament churches throughout the Church Age who were not ashamed to be identified with Baptist doctrine, neither could the gates of Hell prevail against them. Furthermore, the local church is not a building, but a called out assembly of born-again, baptized believers. Officers in the New Testament local church are pastors and deacons.
BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER – We believe that every person who has truly been born-again is already a member of the family of God. Every person who has been born again is to seek a New Testament Church and be baptized by immersion. This public demonstration of a Christian’s faith in Christ typifies the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and our death to sin and resurrection to a new spiritual life. This obedience to Christ’s command is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership in the church family. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death until He returns and should be preceded always by solemn self-examination. As clearly taught in the Bible, the wine is unfermented and therefore new.
GOVERNMENT AND HOME – We believe that God ordained and created authority consisting of three basic institutions: home, the church and the state. Every person is subject to these authorities, but all, including the authorities, are answerable to God and governed by His Word. God has given each institution specific Biblical responsibilities with the understanding that no institution has the right to infringe upon the other. The home, the church, and the state are equal in their respective Biblically assigned spheres of responsibility under God. We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society, and that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except in things opposed to the Word of God. We believe that church and society will be no stronger than the home. The home is where Biblical principles are to be applied first. Children should obey their parents, wives should submit to their husbands, and husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church. The younger women should be taught to stay home and to love their children and husband and guide the home.
DISPENSATIONS – By rightly dividing the Word of Truth, we believe that the proper interpretation of the Scriptures reveals seven dispensations defining man’s responsibility in successive ages, but always by faith.
GIVING – We believe that every Christian, as a steward of that portion of God’s wealth entrusted to him, is obligated to support his local church financially. We believe that God has established the tithe as a basis for giving to support the church and its pastor. Christians should also give other offerings sacrificially & cheerfully to the spread the Gospel and to fund special churches ministries and needs.
MISSIONS – We believe that God has commissioned the church to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to every creature in all nations. We further believe that it is the responsibility of every Christian to witness by word and deed, seeking to win men to Christ, and to be involved with missions abroad. Praying for, encouraging, and financially supporting missionaries should be of utmost importance to churches and Christians. As ambassadors of Christ, we must use all available means to reach the world with the gospel and to bring glory to God.
MINISTRY, SPIRITUAL GIFTS, AND CHURCH WORSHIP – God bestows to all believers gifts according as it pleases Him, for the purpose of the edification of the Body of Christ as we minister in the sphere of that gift. However, the sign gifts as specified In 1 Corinthians 12-14 have ceased serving to confirm the Word of God in the days when the gospel was preached without the complete Bible. A believer who gathers with others should come with a heart attitude of worshiping God in spirit and in truth. Christ is the head of the Church and He should have the preeminence in worship. Women are never to usurp authority over the man by preaching and/or teaching in the mixed assembly. Furthermore, since women are to keep silent in the church and that according to scripture, only a man can be a bishop (preacher), we reject the current false movement of women preachers.
PRAYER – We believe that prayer is both a command and a means of provision from God. It is the channel by which blessings of mercy and grace are appropriated. It is essential to daily living and is the secret to power, comfort, and effective service.
HUMAN SEXUALITY – We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that deviations from these standards are perversions of God’s gift and therefore is sin.
ABORTION – We believe that human life is from God and begins at conception. An unborn child is a living human being, therefore abortion is murder. We reject common excuses to attempt to justify abortion.
This Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible itself is the sole authority and final source of all that we believe. We do believe, however, that this Statement of Faith accurately represents the teaching of the Bible and therefore is binding upon us.